Lisa Janti

Lisa Janti (born Irena Ludmila Vladimirovna Augustynowic; July 5, 1933 – March 7, 2023), known as Lisa Montell during her film and television career, was an American actress, author and activist. She appeared in Hollywood films during the 1950s while also pursuing a parallel career of advocacy and service to disadvantaged groups and to her adopted religion, the Baháʼí Faith.

Early life and education Irena Ludmila Vladimirovna Augustynowic was born in Warsaw, Poland on July 5, 1933. Of Russian and Polish descent, her family fled Poland before World War II. On arrival in New York they changed their last name to Montwill so she grew up Irene Montwill.

Her family moved her senior year in high school to Fort Pierce, Florida where she graduated from St. Lucie High School, prior to taking courses at the University of Miami.

Her first role may have been in 1954 in the TV series The Public Defender, based on the film of the same name. On television, she also appeared as "Rosa" on the TV western Cheyenne, in the episode "Border Showdown" (November 22, 1955); again on Cheyenne as a captured Mexican woman married to a white man (Scott Marlowe) raised as an Apache in "Apache Blood" (1960); in Jane Wyman's Fireside Theater episode of "A Time To Live" (November 27, 1956); in the Sugarfoot episode "Guns for Big Bear" (April 15, 1958); and in the Bat Masterson episode "Pigeon and Hawk" (January 21, 1960). Two years later, she was in the Combat! episode "A Day in June" (December 18, 1962).

Advocacy career In 1956, she joined the Baháʼí Faith. She was drifting away from her acting career and began to work on several advocacy/service projects while continuing to work in the arts. About 1962–63 she was a chair of Human Relations Committee of Culver City and was giving talks on race unity. She also worked on Project People which she co-hosted with Tom Bradley around 1963–64 (before he became mayor of Los Angeles) on KCOP-TV, and gave several talks as part of World Peace Day observances in Phoenix including one in Spanish.

In 1964, she spoke at a Baháʼí youth conference in Pasadena as well as another talk at a Baháʼí event on race unity in Westwood. and finally broke from acting completely. Child Development Centers Inc. After some years of volunteering at Head Start beginning in 1965 in Watts by 1970, she had taken a position directing a Head Start program near Tucson Arizona for the Tohono O'odham on their Reservation. and took a position with Bradley's administration after 1973 by being a liaison with various coalitions and commissions, dealing with various poverty, elderly, art and youth programs including one highlighting the 1975 UN Women's Conference in Mexico. And she served as chair of the Los Angeles Baháʼí Spiritual Assembly while honoring the educational center Plaza de la Raza with a replica of the Aztec calendar stone.

By the 1980s, Janti left Tom Bradley's staff, took graduate courses, and then served on the faculty of School of Education at National University near San Diego teaching courses in holistic education based on the ANISA model. served on the team commemorating Dizzy Gillespie's 50th year in music in 1985 and was on the team giving a "spiritual parenting" workshop at a children's conference in Pasadena in 1987.

In 1992, she worked on projects for the city of Los Angeles and as executive director of U.P. Inc. founded by David Viscott. to September 2001, Janti worked on the Commission on Older Americans for Santa Monica. After publishing an introductory text on the religion in 2005, she served as the program director of the Desert Rose Baháʼí Institute at least c. 2008–09 and she continued to write. and gave birth to a daughter, Shireen Janti, two years later.

Filmography